I love the Manhattan view when you fly into LaGuardia Airport. The view all around the runways? Not so much.
Water on three sides. The thought has crossed my mind, "A plane could end up in the water some day."
Yesterday, one almost did. With 127 passengers on board. The pictures are all over the Internet - and they're pretty dramatic. A jetliner that slid off the runway, crashing through a fence - its nose virtually over the water.
Jared Faellaci said he knew the wheels weren't getting traction on the icy runway. Next thing - the jet was sliding uncontrollably to the left, off the runway and to the edge of the East River. With some passengers crying, some praying, some frantic.
Jared Faellaci was praying. He told a reporter, "Something like this makes you reflect on your relationship with God...God must not be done writing the story of my life."
If God hasn't mattered much before, He really matters when you may have been seconds away from seeing Him.
I've had a couple of pretty close calls in my life. Some on an airplane, some in a car. And you really do - or really should - start asking the bottom line questions we're usually too busy to consider.
Somewhere along the way, we all get our wake-up call. So we'll stop and examine our life...our priorities...our relationship with God...our eternal destination. Moments that bring us to the brink of eternity point us to life's big questions. What really matters - and what really doesn't? Why am I here? Why did God spare me? If this had been the end, what then?
The meaning of our life? The only One who can tell us is the One who gave us our life. And He has. In His Book. We are, He says, "created by Him and for Him." Problem: I've pretty much lived for me. So I'm missing my purpose until I know my Creator.
What really matters? "God has set eternity in the hearts of men." What matters - and all that satisfies - is what will last forever.
What about eternity? God says in His Book we're "destined to die once and after that comes judgment." That's disturbing.
Because we're not ready. Because "your sins have cut you off from God." That's a terrible way to meet Him.
Thank God for Jesus! On that bloody Good Friday, "Christ died for our sins." So we don't have to. He loved us. He didn't want to lose us. And "anyone who believes in God's Son has eternal life."
I gave myself to this Jesus. And because of Him, I - and millions like me - have this anchored peace, even in the face of death.
I'm ready for eternity. Whenever it comes.